Amaya Gaming Acquires Daily Fantasy Sports Site Victiv

Amaya Gaming is making the move into the daily fantasy sports market with its acquisition of Victiv, which will be re-launched under the name StarDraft.

It’s a big move for Amaya, parent company of PokerStars, as they seek to expand their reach outside of poker circles. It’s also an incredibly crowded market and, as various news outlets including CalvinAyre have pointed out, it’s also one that’s already dominated by DraftKings and Fan Duel.

Amaya does, however, have a pretty decent strategy for making a splash in the daily fantasy sports vertical.

Rather than throwing cash at marketing and player acquisition, Amaya will be looking to convert their current player base. Given the fact that poker players are flocking to DFS sites in droves, this could give Amaya a major edge over the competition.

In a statement to the press, Victiv CEO Matthew Primeaux explained the strategy saying:

We intend to capitalize on what we believe is strong crossover between online poker players and daily fantasy sports. PokerStars is the most-trusted brand in online gaming and brings unmatched security, customer support and technical infrastructure that we believe all players can rely on.

When the company does eventually decide to chase new players, they’ll definitely have a competitive edge with Victiv’s DFS platfor.

Victiv is known in DFS circles for having a very player-friendly platform that allows newbies to build a decent-sized roll during practice tournaments, without risking a lot of cash up front.

Whether Amaya’s strategy pays off or not, the daily fantasy sports market is definitely booming and it’s going to be interested to see which players are still standing when US football season ends in February.